This is a great question. I’ve been to 19 NHL cities, a few of the arenas I visited are gone but I’ll try my best to summarize. I’ve been to Anaheim, LA, SJ, Vegas, Arizona this year at the college arena, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit(Joe Louis), old Pittsburgh igloo, Buffalo, Toronto(current), Montreal(current), Ottawa, Boston, NYR(does it count since I’m an NYR fan, NY Islanders(Coliseum, Brooklyn), NJ(swamp and ghetto), Washington, Philly.
My best experiences: Vegas, it’s like going to a show, everything was awesome. The fans were nice and cool and everyone got along at the bar outside the arena.
Montreal, even though I’m a Rangers fan they were incredibly nice and loved talking hockey with me and the atmosphere was great.
Boston, despite the Boston NY multi sport rivalry they were great before and after the game. We were all drunk at the bar after the game singing patriotic songs.
Anaheim: Orange County is so nice. Get an Airbnb with a pool and chill. Very family oriented area.
Worst experiences: I’m not including the rivals like NJ, NYI, Philly for obvious reasons.
Colorado: man lemme tell ya, I went out there and have a friend who lives in Denver and has season tickets with the Avs even though he’s an NYR fan. The fans were complete assholes and douche bags. I got so much shit and I’m like huh it’s Rangers/Avs why is there so much hostility. And I don’t drink when I go to games, I like to have a good time and remember my trips.
San Jose: I had a handicapped friend with me and they separated our seats so we both sat alone the whole game and we were both pissed. They even told us well you can hang out at the intermissions.
LA: lemme start off by saying doing southern Cali is a great trip if you wanna relax and go to some games and enjoy nice weather, but as far as atmosphere, it’s a dead crowd.
Ottawa: the arena is in the middle of nowhere and it’s a pain in the ass to get out of. We’ll see what happens if they get a new downtown arena.
Buffalo: depressing city. Even the locals told me not to hang out in Buffalo.
And let me tell you about my Arizona experience for anyone who’s thinking about going to their current arena in ASU. I loved my trip. Who wouldn’t love 80 degree weather at the end of October? We stayed in Scottsdale and hung out there, we had a great hotel and drank beer poolside. Scottsdale is an amazing area, lots of shops and restaurants. As for the game experience, there’s a college bar that’s close to the arena that’s called The Devil’s Advocate, great bar food. The arena felt so weird. It didn’t feel like I was watching an NHL game. I mean what do you expect from a 5000 seat arena? Plus every ticket was $200 and up.